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Weekly Shōnen Jump (Japanese: 週刊少年ジャンプ, Hepburn: Shūkan Shōnen Janpu, stylized in English as WEEKLY JUMP) is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. Chapters of the series that run in Weekly Shōnen Jump are collected and published in tankōbon volumes under the Jump Comics imprint every two to three months. It is one of the longest-running manga magazines, with the first issue being released with a cover date of August 1, 1968.

The magazine has sold over 7.5 billion copies since 1968, making it the best-selling comic/manga magazine, ahead of competitors such as Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Weekly Shōnen Sunday. The mid-1980s to the mid-1990s represents the era when the magazine's circulation was at its highest, 6.53 million copies per week, with a total readership of 18 million people in Japan. Throughout 2021, it had an average circulation of over 1.3 million copies per week. Many of the best-selling manga series—including One Piece, Dragon Ball, Naruto, Slam Dunk, KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba—originate from Weekly Shōnen Jump.

Weekly Shōnen Jump has sister magazines such as Jump SQ, V Jump, Saikyō Jump, and digital counterpart Shōnen Jump+ which boasts its own exclusive titles. The magazine has also had several international counterparts, including the North American Weekly Shonen Jump. It also spawned a crossover media franchise including anime and video games (since Famicom Jump) which bring together various Shōnen Jump characters.

History

Origins (1960s–1970s)

Weekly Shōnen Jump was launched by Shueisha on July 11, 1968, to compete with the already-successful Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Weekly Shōnen Sunday. Weekly Shōnen Jump's sister publication was a manga magazine called Shōnen Book, which was originally a male version of the short-lived shōjo manga anthology Shōjo Book. Prior to issue 20, Weekly Shōnen Jump was originally called simply Shōnen Jump as it was originally a bi-weekly magazine. In 1969, Shōnen Book ceased publication at which time Shōnen Jump became a weekly magazine and a new monthly magazine called Bessatsu Shōnen Jump was made to take Shōnen Book's place. This magazine was later rebranded as Monthly Shōnen Jump before eventually being discontinued and replaced by Jump SQ.

Golden age (1980s–1990s)

Hiroki Goto was appointed chief editor in 1986 and remained in the position until 1993. His tenure saw significant increases in circulation, and the serialization of numerous popular series. When asked about the period, Goto stated: "We only tried to create manga that everybody can enjoy. There were no specific rules. Idol and tabloid magazines dominated in the Media & Entertainment industry at that time and we aimed to stand out from the crowd by using only manga as our weapon." Famicom Jump: Hero Retsuden, released in 1988 for the Family Computer was produced to commemorate the magazine's 20th anniversary. It was followed by a sequel: Famicom Jump II: Saikyō no Shichinin in 1991, also for the Family Computer. Shōnen Jump's circulation continued to increase year on year until 1995, peaking at 6.53 million copies. By 1998, circulation had dropped to 4.15 million copies, a decline in part ascribed to the conclusion of popular manga series Dragon Ball and Slam Dunk. The magazine peaked with a total readership of 18 million people in Japan during the early 1990s.

Declining circulation (2000–2013)

Circulation for the magazine continued to decline through the early 2000s, before reaching some stability around 2005, well below its earlier peak. In 2000, two more games were created for the purpose of commemorating the magazine's anniversaries. A crossover fighting game titled Jump Super Stars was released for the Nintendo DS in 2005. It was followed by Jump Ultimate Stars in 2006. Due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the shipment of the 15th issue of 2011 was delayed in some areas of Japan. In response, Shueisha published the series included in that issue for free on its website from March 23 to April 27.

On July 11, 2013, the Namco Bandai Group opened an amusement park themed around Weekly Shōnen Jump series. Titled J-World Tokyo, it is located on the third floor of the Sunshine City World Import Mart Building in Ikebukuro and is 1.52 acres. In celebration of the magazine's 45th anniversary in 2013, Shueisha began a contest where anyone can submit manga in three different languages, Japanese, English and Chinese. Judged by the magazine's editorial department, four awards will be given, a grand prize and one for each language, each including 500,000 yen (about US$4,900) and guaranteed publication in either Jump, its special editions, North American edition, China's OK! Comic, or Taiwan's Formosa Youth.

Transition to digital (2013–present)

Bookshelves at the Minamiuonuma City Library, featuring issues of Weekly Shōnen Jump (2018)

A mobile phone app titled "Jump Live" was launched in August 2013, it features exclusive content from the artists whose series run in Weekly Shōnen Jump. On September 22, 2014, the free Shōnen Jump+ (少年ジャンプ+, Shōnen Janpu Purasu, abbreviated J+) mobile app and website was launched in Japan. It sells digital versions of the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, simultaneous with its print release, and tankōbon volumes of individual Jump series past and present. However, it also has large samples of the manga that can be read for free. There are also series that are serialized exclusively on the app, such as Marvel × Shōnen Jump+ Super Collaboration; unlike those in Weekly Shōnen Jump, these series may be aimed at adult men or women. These exclusive series are later published in print tankōbon volumes under the Jump Comics+ imprint. In 2019, the Shōnen Jump+ website and app had about 2.4 million active users. As of January 2020, the app had been downloaded more than 13 million times.

As the magazine shifted towards digital provision, print circulation once again began to decline. By 2017, print circulation was down to under two million, less than a third of its peak during the golden age. This decline follows similar trends seen by other magazines in the sector.

A new crossover game, J-Stars Victory Vs., was released in 2014 for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita to commemorate Jump's 45 anniversary. In June 2018, a limited 50th Anniversary Shōnen Jump Edition of the Famicom Mini (NES Classic Edition) game console was released in Japan. It sold 110,000 units in two days.

On January 28, 2019, Shueisha launched the global English-language version of Shōnen Jump+, titled Manga Plus. It is freely available in every country except China and South Korea, which have their own separate services. A Spanish-language version was launched in February 2019, and has a different library of content. Like the Japanese app, it has large samples of manga that can be read for free including all the current titles of Weekly Shōnen Jump, a sizeable number of titles from Shōnen Jump+ and some titles from Jump Square. However, unlike the Japanese version, the latest chapters of current Weekly Shōnen Jump manga are made available free for a limited-time and it does not sell content.

Process

When a manga artist submits work to Weekly Shōnen Jump with the hope of being published in the magazine, an editor is assigned to them. The editor then works with that artist to create a manga that will appeal to the rest of the editorial department. To do this, they may publish manga in a special issue, or the deputy editor-in-chief may tell them to submit it to the main magazine as a one-shot if there is a slot open. When it is published, they look at its votes in the readers survey to see which works have potential and which do not.

Every issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump has a survey postcard that readers can fill out, choosing the three manga from that issue that they found the most "interesting", and mail in to the office.

If it is decided a work should aim to be serialized, then the writer and editor create storyboards, or names, for three chapters of the manga. Torishima explained the reason they create three is because "the basic length is 10 weeks", so one-third of the story is developed in three chapters. "That means we want to show who the main character is and what the story is about in those three stories. A manga that can't show that is poorly structured." If the editor's group of fellow editors feels it has potential, then it is brought to the deputy editor-in-chief and determined whether or not it will be brought to the next serialization meeting. The process sees the editor put the three storyboards and a character chart in a brown envelope, superscribe the title, author's name, number of pages per chapter and their own recommendation, and pass it around the office so the other editors can read it and write their own opinions. Torishima commented that, because the envelopes are left in the open on the deputy editor's desk, the editor in charge of the work can read any criticism and secretly have changes made to the storyboards before it is taken to the serialization meeting.

Torishima explained that if three series are deemed to finish at a meeting, then three new ones will start. He said they look for a balance between starting new manga and ending current ones; "if you're starting three manga for younger children, you look at the balance, such as leaving the ones aimed at an older audience."

The order in which the manga series are placed in each issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump acts as a barometer of their popularity. Although it is not an exact correlation, the earlier a manga is placed in an issue, the more popular it is. According to Torishima, a series can already be a candidate for cancellation based on the results of its third week's survey, and there is a "rule" that if a manga is not popular, it will be cancelled around its tenth chapter.